![]() The stronger the storm, the more widespread sightings of the aurora might be – and the advisory for Thursday sits at a level 3 out of 5. “High-energy particles precipitating down along the Earth’s dipolar magnetic field into the auroral ionosphere collisionally excite atoms and molecules, leading to the auroral emissions with a variety of appearances, from bright discrete arcs, to faint arcs, to diffuse aurora,” the paper’s authors wrote in part. A June 2021 paper published in the journal Nature Communications, confirmed that the aurora borealis can be seen when solar wind particles pull on the Earth’s magnetic field, creating undulations that appear as bright lights in the sky. The Northern Lights, and all other auroras seen on Earth, are caused by these disturbances in the magnetosphere, and can shift both location, light color and duration depending on the type of geomagnetic storm occurring at the time. A coronal mass ejection, or CME, occurs when a large amount of plasma is ejected from the sun and can cause – depending on its strength – temporary changes to the Earth’s magnetosphere. ![]() ![]() That’s because the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a level 3 geomagnetic storm watch for August 18, caused by significant coronal mass ejections from the sun. Some images of the light show were captured in Minnesota and Washington on Wednesday, and the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks predicted continued “highly active” lights through tonight.The storm might have the potential to “drive the aurora further away from its normal polar residence over portions of Pennsylvania, Iowa, to northern Oregon,” NOAA wrote in part.That’s because the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a level 3 geomagnetic storm watch for August 18, caused by significant coronal mass ejections from the sun.The Northern Lights – a dizzying array of curtained lights also known as the aurora borealis – can usually be seen near the Arctic Circle in places like Alaska, Canada, Iceland, and Finland.
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